Ultimate Weapon
by adidas23
Summary: The Terebe are after their prize-- and they won't take no for an answer. It's now up to Raiutski and his friends to make the ultimate choice... power or honor?
1. Chapter 1

Akemi

My teeth clicked together as my head snapped back. My body described a circle as I flew through the air. As soon as my feet clutched the ground I was off, racing away. I was at the disadvantage here, and I knew it. He was just too fast for me.

"Hehe. You've gotta be faster than that to get away from me, punk."

I gasped and glanced at my right. It was him, gliding easily alongside me. He even had the nerve to run backwards. I moved my jaw sorely and rubbed it where he had hit me moments before. In an instant he was standing directly in front of me. I ran into him and slumped down to a sitting position.

_Man, this guy is solid!_ I thought to myself as I tried to figure a way out of this.

The boy smiled and unfolded his arms.

"So you're the idiot that tried to run, huh?" he chuckled haughtily. "How old are you, anyway? You don't even look like you're fifteen." He tried squinting through my mask and goggles. I smiled to myself. I was extremely lucky I had chosen to wear them.

I leapt backwards through the air in an attempt to get away, but he cuahgt me in midair and pinned me down roughly. He held both of my wrists above my head in one hand, and the other was reaching for my face. His coarse fingers pulled at the fabric covering my mouth and tugged it past my chin. Now he grasped my goggles and pushed them onto my forehead.

His smirk froze on his face.

"Oh, what is it?" I asked sarcastically. "Didn't expect me to be a _girl_?" I reached up quickly and brushed my hand against his, skin on skin.

He instantly slowed back down to normal speed, and I could track his movements with my eyes. Before he had seemed twitchy, like a bird. It was my turn to smirk.

I moved behind him in an instant, causing him to fall forward from my sudden disappearance.

"What the…?" he looked back at me in shock.

"Too bad you saw my face. I can't leave any witnesses." I pulled a small knife from my pocket and raced toward him with my newly acquired speed.


	2. Chapter 2

"Aaaaaahhh!" I plunged down toward the ground, determined to have everyone hear me before I splattered between the trees.

"Calm down, would you?"

I froze and opened one eye. I was floating well above the trees. I twisted to look up at Max, who was holding my ankle.

"Oh, thanks." I beamed up at him. His wings were working hard in order to support his and my weight. He rolled his eyes.

"Only you would forget that we were by a cliff." He muttered as he flew back up to the ledge. He dropped me straight down onto the ground. I grunted as I took the brunt of it on my shoulders and neck.

"You both could have done that more gracefully." Raiutski criticized.

"Let's just get on with it!" Max snapped, ignoring Raiutski's comment. As he spoke he crossed his arms. His wings melted away until only a few feathers gave evidence that they had even existed. I knew the frustration he felt. It was beginning to get to me, too. Raituski had called us here to tell us something important, but wouldn't say a word until Darik got here. We'd been waiting for a whole hour now.

A faint echoing whistle announced the arrival of the stupidest boy on our group. We were specially arranged so that each of us complimented each other. Raiutski was the smartest of us, plus he had the ability to read people's thoughts and communicate telepathically. On the opposite side of the spectrum was me, Miss Muscles. With a simple squeeze, I could easily crush the bones of anything. Max was good at being the first wave of an attack, swooping in on his bird wings and following that up with any of his transformations like a bear or tiger.

And Darik? Well I don't know how he helped us out. All he's good at was fire.

He strolled up the hill slowly, eating a sandwich and snapping fire out of his fingertips. Max and I glared at him.

"What? I was talking to someone." He replied to Raiutski's mental query of where he had been. He plopped back down on the ground and lay back.

"All right, so here's the thing," Raiutski started. "We were going to spend a couple weeks out here working on survival,"

Darik sat up, all ears. "_What?!_ But we just got back!"

"He said we _were_, not we _are_, stupid," Max snapped.

Raiutski nodded. "But we have important visitors coming, so all we're going to work on is getting from point A to point B as quickly as you can., and how well you know distances and directions. So, point A is where you are standing. Point B is one mile away towards the south. Go!" he pulled out a watch.

I took off. I could cover a mile in four, maybe five minutes. I thought about how Max and Darik would get there. Max had wings. Darik… ok so he would probably be too lazy. But I had to beat Max. I pushed off the ground harder and harder until I was making twenty footsteps. I would have gone faster except for all the trees.

_You've made a mistake already._ A faint voice said dully in my mind.

I cringed. It was probably Raiutski. Ugh. I had overshot already? I swung around a small tree, using it to launch myself up to a taller tree. I wrapped my way around a small tree, using it to launch myself up to a taller tree. I wrapped my way around the large trunk, keeping up my momentum so I could make it easily to the very top. I looked back to the edge of the cliff. Impossible. I hadn't made any mistakes. Raiutski was much closer than I had expected.

"Sari! To your left!" Max blew past my right, blocking four arrows that had been shot straight at me, on my left someone was coming straight for me. I blocked their punches, but lost my balance as they surprised me with a kick.

I felt the familiar numbness engross me as I fell. My body was accustomed to break my blows and falls. I hardly ever felt pain. I felt the jolt from hitting the ground an tried to recover, but my body was held down. Vines cut into my arms and legs. The harder I pushed against them, the deeper they cut into my skin.

I heard the chuckle of the figure as they walked out of the shadow of the trees. I saw them raise their hand, and more vines rose out of the ground. These looked more lethal, with thorns narrowed to sharp points. Their arm pulled back and shot forward.

I screamed and thrashed violently against the vines restricting me, but gasped as a wave of heat laid itself slowly onto me.

"Geez, Sari, chill." Darik strolled over to me through the fire and burned the vines away.

"Putting up a wall of fire won't stop them," I warned, trying to look through the blazing flames.

"No, but it will give us enough time to get away," he said, pulling me with him as he ran back to Raiutski. Max dove down to our level so that they couldn't get our coordinates by following his flight.

Within a few minutes, I felt Raiutski's relief wash over me, soothing my panic and adrenaline rush.

_Good, you two got to her,_ he said quietly in our minds.

We stood in front of him now.

"You were out of range from my communication, I couldn't tell you that there were intruders coming at you." He explained why he had panicked.

"What are you talking about? I heard you tell me I'd messed up second before the whole thing happened." I retorted.

Raiutski stayed silent for a few seconds, a rare occurrence. "That wasn't me." He finally answered.

"Urgh!" Max veered out of control as trees began sprinting in front of him no matter which direction he turned. He was finally caught by one and swept upward by its rapid growth.

Raiutski and Darik had their own problems, trying to fight off the same annoying vines that had held me down before.

"Not as talented as we expected, are they?" I snapped my head around for the source of the sound to see _them_ again.

"No. Everyone else put up a better fight, they weren't as quick to be captured as this group is."

_Better fight, my butt! My team is the best of the best!_ I thought to myself and charged at them, grinding my teeth. One man dodged my punch, but the others' face was smashed to the pack of his head, recognition. The man came at me from behind. I ducked his stab and snatched his wrist. With the twitch of my hand I broke his arm, and he dropped the weapon. A crumbling noise caught my attention, and I saw half of the rogue plants die away.

"Hmm. So you're controlling those annoying plants, are you?" I asked smugly, having figured out his ability. "so if I break your arms, you're out of luck."

This tie I reached for his healthy arm, but came away with only the sleeve of his shirt. The rip exposed a strange tattoo composed of twelve stars put together to make a pyramid. I went to attack again, but almost fell face first to the ground.

"Ugh! What is with you and these _vines?!_" I screamed in frustration. I pulled at them with my hands, but they only became entangled in the vines as well. I watched as they slithered up past my hands. They wanted to reach my neck, and didn't have any trouble finding it.

I gagged as they tightened abruptly. I twisted and pulled against them, but they only strengthened their hold. My sight began to turn fuzzy and my peripheral vision blackened. I pulled one last time against my restraints. I couldn't hold on any longer. I was dizzy from lack of oxygen, and welcomed the darkness.

I glowered darkly at all three of them.

"You could've woken me up!" I snapped at Raiutski.

"Could have. But you needed the rest, and we needed to get going."

I pushed against Darik's back, but this only caused him to tighten his grip on my legs.

"Well I'm up now, and Darik doesn't need to carry me anymore."

All of them ignored me.

"Put. Me. Down." I said threateningly in Darik's ear. He continued humming. I tightened my hold on his neck. Still humming. I tensed my muscles even more. The humming stopped. I tightened just a touch more… I didn't want to break his neck.

"Raiu…tski!" he choked out.

"Sari!" Raiutski didn't stop or look back at me, but I could tell he was irritated.

"Well, he wouldn't…" I paused. Something was wrong with my arms. They were either very cold or very hot. "Ack! _Darik don't do that!_" I let go of his neck. He had burned my arms until they were blistered. Stupid me. Raiutski had Darik hold me because he was the only one that could make me feel pain. I sighed and slumped down. I might as well just sit here quietly until we get to town.

Darik literally dropped me the moment we got into town.

"You little--!" I got to my feet and glared.

"You were sleeping. I had to wake you up." He grinned mischievously.

I was off after him, but Darik was just as fast. We sped straight through the streets. People barely moved. It was a common enough occurrence to see me, Max, and Darik chasing each other around. I was gaining on him. I grinned as I reached out to grab the collar of his shirt. The fabric tickled the palm of my hand.

"Ack!" I snatched thin air. He had turned. I could keep up with pretty much anyone in the world until they turned. I dug my feet deep into the ground and backtracked.

_Let's see. He turned on the corner with the yellow sign on it…_ I scanned around for the yellow.

"There it is," I sped up to a steady jog and rounded the corner carefully. "What in the--??" I gasped open-mouthed at Darik. "DARIK YOU PERVERT GET OFF THAT GIRL!" I stomped over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the poor girl (and the ground) he had been laying on.

"I'm sorry! It was a total accident!" he was blushing madly and looking anywhere to avoid my accusing gaze. A flash of black caught my eye. One boy was standing protectively in front of the girl, and another had his arms crossed and was watching me closely. All three of them had goggles around their necks, and strange technology on their wrists. They each had sturdy boots on and the boys had backpacks with poles sticking out at odd angles. They were all also _extremely_ good-looking… I couldn't help but notice.

"Howe dsebe edat?" the boy closest asked a strange and unintelligible question.

"Excuse me?" I asked, confused. His dark green eyes narrowed underneath his shaggy blonde hair.

"Howe dsebe edat." He repeated slowly. My eyes widened. He had fangs. He knew what I had seen and snapped his teeth together audibly. They flashed in the midday sun. I dropped Darik onto his feet.

"You see them? He's got fangs."

Darik nodded and crouched into a fighting position. The green-eyed boy bore his teeth and uttered a low hiss.

"Ilkel yowf neto." He spoke again.

"Rokur," the girl cooed and stood by the boy. "Benees." She smiled and pushed him out of the way. She beamed at us, blinding me with her beauty. Seriously though. Her icy blue eyes widened as she looked us up and down curiously.

"I'm Akemi Okitatke." She held her hand out to me.

I fit mine hesitantly into hers. "I'm Sari Chiharu."

A smile pulled on the corner of her mouth. "You could break my hand right now, couldn't you?" she asked. She had a strange accent, one I hadn't heard before.

"'Course I could. Without even trying."

"Try it."

I tightened my grip on her, smirking. Hmm. Hadn't even heard a crack. I squeezed as hard as I could. A small crack. She pulled her hand out of the grip to reveal the crooked bones in her hand. She examined it and then flexed her hand. They seemed to pop back into place and then heal instantly. Impossible!

"And you," she turned to Darik. "You're Darik. And your power is… fire?"

"Er, yes," he said, blushing.

"Show me." She said sweetly.

Darik regained his composure and snapped his fingers. A small spark erupted from the friction, and he opened his palm. The fire easily grew on his command.

"No, no!" she laughed. It was like music. "_Show_ me."

"Whaaaaat? You mean , like, _attack_ you?" Darik and I chorused.

"Akemi!" the boys were both standing protectively in front of her again. "Ksto phit!" they both hissed at her. She rolled her eyes.

"Sari!" Max landed behind me. Raiutski was right after him.

_They're from the west. I can't get more than that from them._ Raiutski gathered information from the foreigners' minds as soon as he saw what was going on. _I'll translate for you._

"I assume you three have had it rough these last few days?" to my ears, Raiutski's words made sense, but in my mind I understood them perfectly.

"Sort of." The girl seemed to enjoy having more people around. She moved towards Raiutski.

"Akemi!" the blonde boy moved back to his defensive position in front of her. "Cut it out, will you? You're not making this job any easier for Scott _or_ me!" Now I could understand exactly what their strange words meant.

"Oh, please, you already ruined my experiment with the fireboy." She muttered and then backed away.

"So how can we help you?"

The boys looked at each other hesitantly, but the girl broke into a smile. "We need a place to stay!" I couldn't help but laugh at her childlike personality. When I opened my eyes I gasped. They were in fight stances, low to the ground and wearing hard expressions.

"Wait, what happened, I blinked." Darik opened and closed his eyes faster to prove his point.

"Which one is it?" a low gravelly voice announced the arrival of a man.

"I'm not sure. Both held up fine earlier." It was the plant man and one of his comrades. Their eyes flickered from me to Akemi.

"What the heck is it that you guys want?" Max muttered to Raiutski.

"I can't tell. Either Sari or Akemi."

"I don't think any of them will help us weed her out." The plant man nodded toward the guys.

"It's fine." The other man replied. "I'll help them out a little." He leaped down from his perch on the fence and charged at Akemi. He disappeared mid-jump and was behind her in less than a second. He swung a knife at her neck just as quickly.

His blade cut only air. Akemi was up on the fence, dangling her legs as she sat next to the plant man. He fell off the fence in surprise. The other man's hand had been caught by the blonde boy. He revealed his fangs and his eyes flashed red. I couldn't help but look straight into them. I was immediately paralyzed by images of horror and gore. Faces ripping apart, shapeless monsters stalking in the shadows, too fast, too strong to escape from—

"Affton," Scott placed his hand on the blonde boy's shoulder. "Not in front of them." He gestured toward my group. Affton nodded and disappeared with the other man.

"Aaarglkl!" a sickening scream escaped to my right. The plant man had a terrified look on his face as he gaped down at his stomach. A strange tearing noise came seconds before blood blossomed from underneath his clothes, but they soon ripped through, revealing a writhing mass of bloody flesh.

He was being turned inside-out.

I closed my eyes and looked away.

_Who's doing it?_ I asked Raiutski.

_Either Akemi or Scott. They're very practiced at blocking people out of their minds._ Even speaking to Raiutski in his mind, I could tell he was horrified at the sight of the man.


	3. Chapter 3

Darik

"So you three have come here… why?" Raiutski had been straightening everything out with the foreign group for the past hour.

"Corruption in the highest commanders started from the south and then worked north to where we lived. From there it headed east." Scott sighed. "We've tried to settle somewhere a few times, but that only cost lives. This time we've gone much farther than we needed to."

Raiutski nodded and asked for details. He, Max, and Scott leaned closer together as the story got more intense.

"Hey, what took ya so long?" Akemi yawned and flicked the ear of Affton… who hadn't arrived until moments ago.

"Ugh, I'm tired of people appearing out of nowhere!" I rolled my eyes and looked at Sari.

"He's… got blood on his mouth…" she whispered.

"What?" I looked up just in time to see him brush his lips with his fingers and then assume that overprotective stance he and Scott kept trading off while they hovered around Akemi.

"Hey."

"Bwaa!" I panicked and almost fell backwards. Akemi's face was inches from mine. I could feel her long black hair tickling my skin. She smelled so nice. She giggled and pulled back a little.

"So what are your guys' powers, huh? Like how do they work together?"

"Well," I began, pleased that she had asked me. "There's always the smart one. That's Raiutski."

"What makes him so smart?"

"He can read people's minds. And sometimes speak telepathically. Once he even moved stuff with his mind."

"And then there's me, the muscle of the group." Sari flexed her arm and gave a smug grin. "So strong I could easily lift a house."

I rolled my eyes. She was only trying to show off to Affton, and even _I_ knew it. I snuck a peek at him and was pleased to see he was intently paying attention to everything _but_ Sari. She sighed and lay back in the grass.

"Then there's Max and me," I continued. "And I guess I'm good for defense and emergency defense kinda things, like walls of fire. And Max could do anything, really."

"Shape-shifter?" Akemi looked like she was sizing him up.

"Yeah, but not everything all the time. Mostly it's only bits and pieces of certain animals."

She nodded and then stared at Raiutski, Max, and Scott. They looked up and came to join us. I guess they finished their conversation.

"Well, what about you guys?" I asked, not wanting the conversation to end. "What are your powers?"

She scoffed and turned her attention back to me. "Nothing as interesting as controlling fire."

"You didn't answer the question." Max said quietly. "You're avoiding it."

Akemi flinched and looked to Scott and Ashton for help.

"You're right, but…" she sighed. "There's a reason. It's not that we don't trust you or anything…"

"No, no, we owe them." Scott interrupted. "If they weren't there we would've been found out. And then _they_ would know where we were." He turned to my group with arms open and a pleading look on his face. "Truth is, we are 'vokin te aribel'."

We sat silently and looked to Raiutski. He blushed and scratched his head. "Sorry, we don't really have a word for that that I know of," he explained.

Akemi nodded and thought for a moment. "Does 'demon' work for you?"

Sari and Max leaped to their feet. "_Demons!_" they hissed together. Even Raiutski looked a little alarmed, which set me on edge.

But then again…

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes. "Yeah right, demons are _powerful_ and _scary-looking_. None of you fit that description." I opened my eyes again.

Akemi frowned. "Maybe I didn't describe it right,"

"Darik!" Raiutski hissed. "_Demons_ doesn't mean the little devils with horns!"

"Heh? Then what other kinds of demons are there?" Ugh my brain hurt. Talking to Raiutski always gave me headaches.

"The _legends_, Darik. Think about the legends." Raiutski was extremely wary now. "From the war hundreds of years ago."

"The one with the people of the west. I remember."

The people to the west of our island lived halfway across the world, yet they sent armies to the east to challenge us. We were a small island, yet no one could measure up to our inherited ability of transformation. Of course they lost, and retreated back to their homelands.

But they left traces of the war that extended beyond destruction of homes and lives. People began to change. Ones who had fought in the war began to go insane, craving people as their choice of food. Others had extremely testy tempers, and if angered enough, they would change their shape and become some other beast entirely. This was the origin for fairy tales about 'vampires' and 'werewolves'. They were hated symbols, many believed they represented the devil.

"Oh, come on!" I protested. "You can't really think they're like vampires or werewolves!" Raiutski looked at me sternly.

"Think about it, Darik," he rose to his feet. "Affton. He's extremely fast and strong, and he has those red hypnotic eyes. Plus the obvious—his fangs."

"Eh. Ok. You got me there. But Scott and Akemi?"

"Scott. He's got a good sense of smell, amazing hearing, and has a hard time controlling his temper. He also has fangs of a sort, but mostly a canine resemblance, unlike Affton's." Raiutski's gaze shifted for just a moment to Akemi. "She lied. She's not a demon. They're keeping her a captive for some reason."

"How did you know half of those?! I never told you I could hear and smell well! And the anger issue--," Scott looked amazed.

"He's a mind-reader, Scott. We have very few secrets hidden from him now." Akemi looked strangely happy about this. "Raiutski," she said softly, "if you know their abilities, then you also know that they are _inherited_ abilities."

"Inherit _that!_" Sari burst out. "But inherited abilities—you usually only have one extra power!"

She was right. The inherited abilities were passed down from generation to generation. Each family had its own special ability and these could be combined in order to form a sort of hybrid child commonly called _Ikiru._ Of course, even if both parents had powers, the child was not guaranteed anything.

In our town the majority of the _Ikiru_ had the shape-shifting power like Max. Sari and I were rare, with fire and strength powers. And Raiutski was one of the three people on the whole island. He had inherited _three_ abilities, earning him the title of _Saniru_, or three powers.

But the group of teenagers facing us… they each seemed to have inherited at _least_ five! The power they each had… they would be able to defeat us all without even trying!

Scott stepped forward again and spread his arms further. Akemi quickly followed suit, her eyes wide and pleading. I melted right on the spot.

"I trust them," I blurted out.

"No, you trust _her_." Raiutski corrected me. I could tell he was having a hard time resisting her innocent expression.

Who cares! She's gorgeous and she's looking at me like that? How could I disagree with anything she said?

Scott suddenly burst out in speech.

"_Raiutski, tere ta lember! Wimin yuno harmplea! Dat us_!..." Raiutski had no time to translate for us.

"You know what I just realized?" Max muttered next to me. I glanced over to show I was interested. "How do they understand what _we're_ saying? Akemi is the only one that can speak it, and Raiutski can't get into their minds well to tell them what our words mean."

"One of them must have Raiutski's mind-reading power." Sari joined us.

"Yeah. I'm betting it's Affton…"

"Raiutski!" a stranger's voice called out. "Raiutski! It's urgent!" a messenger sprinted by us, skidded into a turn and stood in front of Raiutski. "Your group has been given a new job." He panted and pulled out a bulky envelope.

"You are to protect the foreigners at all costs. The details are in there." He bowed and left us at a much slower pace than he had arrived.

Raiutski frowned and read the ltter. He sighed and tossed it to Max, who shook his head and handed it to me.

"Oh, hey, so this all works out!" I grinned. "We protect them!" the envelope held pictures and vague background checks of three people. All three pictures matched the people standing in front of me. I read on, scanning through the details. Of course my eyes were magnetized to the one line that read _confidential_.

I furtively looked at Raiutski and read the few words listed underneath it.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LOSE TRACK OF THE PEOPLE IDENTIFIED HERE. DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE ELSE TO EXTERMINATE OR DESTROY THEM. MOST IMPORTANTLY TO OKITATKE, AKEMI.

Hmm. So Akemi was very important… so important that her home country chased her halfway around the world, and two legendary-powered _Ikiru_ were her bodyguards.

"That settles it." Max relaxed from his fight stance and yawned. Sari followed suit and all three of us looked to Raiutski for directions on what to do now.

"All right, we'll get you guys set up with a place to stay. Then we'll each pick up shifts for a night watch."

"Sweet! A balcony!" Akemi opened the door to her room and went straight to the open doorway that led out to a small balcony that overlooked downtown. She leaned over the railing and lifted her feet off the ground. "There's so many people!" she looked down and leaned even further.

"Akemi!" Scott rushed forward and caught her before she fell. He wrapped his arm around her waist and carried her parallel to the ground back into the room. "Don't do stuff like that! You know it scares me!" he moved to put her down and froze. "WHERE IS SHE NOW?!" he darted around the room looking for her.

Akemi stood patiently behind him while Scott continued to search.

Affton looked worn out, like he had had to deal with this sort of thing for a long, long time.

"Scott tends to take his protection job… _too_ seriously…" he explained as we all watched the two fuss over what things Akemi could and couldn't do.


End file.
